Monitoring traffic flow within a customer service area to improve customer experience

Abstract

A region within a field of view of a video stream associated with an Internet Protocol (IP) camera can be identified. The region can be associated with one or more logical boundaries which can correspond to one or more physical boundaries within a customer service area of a place of business. The customer service area can be a domain in which a customer interacts with a business product and/or a business service. A customer crossing a logical boundary of the customer service area can be detected in real-time. The detecting can be performed by a directional tripwire analytics which can comprise of an object tracking algorithm, a face detection functionality, and/or a shape detection procedure. The traffic flow associated with the region can be programmatically determined which can include flow density, flow rate, and flow speed.

1 . A method for monitoring traffic flow within a customer service area comprising:
 identifying a region within a field of view of a video stream associated with a camera, wherein the region is associated with a plurality of logical boundaries, wherein the logical boundaries corresponds to a plurality of physical boundaries within a customer service area of a place of business, wherein the customer service area is a domain in which a customer interacts with at least one of a business product and a business service;   detecting in real-time or near real-time within the video stream a customer crossing at least one of the plurality of logical boundaries of the customer service area; and   programmatically determining the traffic flow associated with the region, wherein the traffic flow is at least one of a flow density, flow rate, and flow speed.   
     
     
         2 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the detecting is performed by a directional tripwire analytics, wherein the directional tripwire analytics is at least one of an object tracking algorithm, a face detection functionality, and a shape detection procedure. 
     
     
         3 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the customer service area is defined by at least one boundary associated with a physical artifact, wherein the physical artifact is at least one of a handrail, an adhesive tape, flagging tape, a pressure sensitive tape, and a painted demarcation. 
     
     
         4 . The method of  claim 1 , further comprising:
 generating an alert based on the determining and when the alert matches a trigger within the video analytics system, creating an event for the alert, wherein the event comprises of at least one of a timestamp, a location, and a status; and   composing a notification associated with the event and conveying the notification to a relevant entity associated with the retail store, wherein the entity is at least one of a notification component and a notification device.   
     
     
         5 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the notification is conveyed in a format conforming to at least one of an email, text message, voice message, Instant Message (IM), pager alert, and facsimile. 
     
     
         6 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the notification is conveyed to an entity proximate to the location associated with the event, and wherein the notification is conveyed to a centralized back-office computing device. 
     
     
         7 . The method of  claim 4 , wherein the notification is conveyed to a fixed notification device, wherein the fixed notification device is at least one of a loudspeaker and a lighting fixture. 
     
     
         8 . The method of  claim 2 , wherein determining is performed via directional tripwire analytics associated with an IBM SMART SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM. 
     
     
         9 . The method of  claim 1 , wherein the detecting is assisted by input from sensors within the place of business. 
     
     
         10 . A system for monitoring traffic flow within a customer service area comprising:
 a region within a customer service area of a place of business defined within a field of view of a camera, wherein the region comprises of at least one physical boundary, wherein the at least one physical boundary corresponds to at least one logical boundary, wherein the logical boundary is a virtual tripwire associated with a directional tripwire analytic;   an analytics engine able to determine a entity triggering the directional tripwire analytic, wherein the triggering is responsive to identifying an entity intersecting the virtual tripwire within a video stream associated with the IP camera;   a notification engine configured to generate a notification of an event occurrence within the region, wherein the event occurrence is a traffic flow condition associated with the region; and   a trigger associated with the directional tripwire analytic comprising of at least one of a criteria and an action, wherein the criteria is associated with a traffic flow property of the region, wherein the property is at least one of a flow rate, flow density, and flow speed.   
     
     
         11 . The system of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 a video management system able to store the video stream associated with the IP camera; and   a video library configured to store metadata associated with the video stream, wherein the metadata comprises of at least a video analytics information and a user specified information.   
     
     
         12 . The system of  claim 10 , further comprising:
 a presence server configured to convey location information of an entity proximate to a region to the notification engine, wherein the entity is at least one of an worker and a notification device.   
     
     
         13 . The system of  claim 10  wherein the notification is presented within an application interface of a notification device, wherein the notification device is at least one of a back-office computing device, portable computing device, and a desktop computer. 
     
     
         14 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the notification comprises of at least one of a timestamp, a text description, a location, and a video stream. 
     
     
         15 . The system of  claim 10 , wherein the claimed system is associated with an IBM MIDDLEWARE FOR LARGE SCALE SURVEILLANCE (MILS) software. 
     
     
         16 . An apparatus including an interface for monitoring traffic flow within a customer service area comprising:
 a tangible memory storing at least one computer program product;   a processor operable to execute the computer program product to cause the interface window to be displayed by the display hardware; and   the computer program product when executed by the processor being operable to identify a region within a field of view of a video stream associated with an Internet Protocol (IP) camera, wherein the region is associated with a plurality of logical boundaries, wherein the logical boundaries corresponds to a plurality of physical boundaries within a customer service area of a place of business, wherein the customer service area is a domain in which a customer interacts with at least one of a business product and a business service;   the computer program product when executed by the processor being operable to detect in real-time within the video stream a customer crossing at least one of the plurality of logical boundaries of the customer service area, wherein the detecting is performed by a directional tripwire analytics, wherein the directional tripwire analytics is at least one of an object tracking algorithm, a face detection functionality, and a shape detection procedure; and   the computer program product when executed by the processor being operable to programmatically determine the traffic flow associated with the region, wherein the traffic flow is at least one of a flow density, flow rate, and flow speed.   
     
     
         17 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 when the traffic flow matches a trigger criteria, generating an event occurrence and performing a notification action.   
     
     
         18 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , further comprising:
 display hardware within with an interface window of a graphical user interface is displayed to a user;   wherein the computer program product presents a notification within the graphical user interface, wherein the notification presents traffic flow statistics associated the region within the customer service area.   
     
     
         19 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein the interface is associated with a computing application, wherein the computing application is a component of a Service Oriented Architecture. 
     
     
         20 . The apparatus of  claim 16 , wherein the interface permits searching event occurrences by a plurality of search parameters, wherein the search parameter is at least one of a time, location, event type, and user-specified metadata.